Policy on Psychiatric Consultation

Eligibility

Psychiatric Consultation is offered to students on a limited basis.  Only on-going clients of the Counseling Service or Student Health Service (SHS) are eligible for psychiatric consultation and must be referred by their counselor or SHS health care provider.  Normally, clients must have participated in three sessions with a counselor before being considered an “on-going” client, but exceptions to this rule can be made at the discretion of the counselor.  If a client terminates counseling prior to the completion of service with the psychiatrist, he/she will normally be allowed no more than one additional visit with the psychiatrist to allow termination of that service as well. 

Extent of Service

The Counseling Service psychiatric care operates on a consultation model.  The purpose of the consultation model is to provide sufficient psychiatric contact to assess for the potential usefulness of medication and ensure stabilization if medication is prescribed.  In most cases, students will only be seen by the psychiatrist for an initial assessment and 2-3 follow-up visits.  Since psychiatric coverage is limited, ongoing psychiatric services cannot be offered, as this would eventually result in the restriction of access to psychiatric appointments to only a small segment of the Counseling Service’s clientele.  If during an initial evaluation with the psychiatrist it is determined that medication will be prescribed, it is important that students begin the process of finding on-going psychiatric care immediately since it can take up to two months to get an appointment with a local psychiatrist.  The student’s counselor can assist with the task of finding on-going psychiatric care.

No-Shows and Cancellations

Psychiatric appointments are extremely expensive and are in high demand.  Therefore, no-shows and last minute cancellations will not be tolerated.  Cancellations must be made no less than 24 hours in advance of the appointment to allow staff to schedule other students in the appointment slot.  If students no-show or cancel with less than 24 hours notice, they will not be permitted to schedule any further appointments with the psychiatrist.

Questions regarding this policy can be directed to the counselor to which you are assigned or Jennie Cassidy, Director of Counseling Services at (843) 349-2305.